Senate Tax Plan Includes Exemption for Private Jet Management

“We’re doing our best to navigate a very unclear path — frankly, the industry doesn’t know the proper guidance to be following, and the I.R.S. doesn’t, either,” said Jamie Walker, chief executive of Jet Linx Aviation, a management company that offers services for more than 100 jets at 14 locations across the country.

“Everyone’s been stuck in limbo,” Mr. Walker said.

This year, the I.R.S. lost a case in federal court that had challenged ticket tax on aircraft management firms. Afterward, the agency said it would abandon existing audits involving ticket taxes on such firms.

That lawsuit was filed by NetJets, a company based in Ohio. The provision in the Senate tax plan closely mirrors a bill co-sponsored this year by Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from the same state.

Although protected from the ticket tax, aircraft management companies would still be subject to corporate taxes.

Martin H. Hiller, president of the National Air Transportation Association trade group, said in a statement that the provision was a “common sense” addition that affords small aviation businesses “the tax certainty they have long sought.”